Wang Ya
→ Growing Colors 2024-Now
→ Dictyostelium 2024-Now
→ Cell-Cell 2023
→ Inner Kinship 2022
→ Ants 2021
Acknowledgements
Contact
→ Growing Colors 2024-Now
→ Dictyostelium 2024-Now
→ Cell-Cell 2023
→ Inner Kinship 2022
→ Ants 2021
Acknowledgements
Contact
Of all the organisms I’ve studied as an artist crossing into biology, Dictyostelium has left me in awe.
It’s a humble soil amoeba that performs something extraordinary: when food runs out, thousands of solitary cells gather through chemical signals and self-organize into a moving, breathing collective—a “slug” that journeys toward light before rising into a delicate fruiting body.
What moves me isn’t just the beauty of its forms under the microscope, but the profound metaphor it offers.
Here, in this tiny organism, I witness sacrifice, collaboration, and the emergence of intelligence from simplicity. It blurs the line between “individual” and “society,” inviting us to reflect on our own collective existence.
The following six photographs illustrate the process of cellular communication and aggregation in response to environmental stress.